


Wings

by vanitaslaughing



Category: Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
Genre: Gen, and we all know broody alternis can get kinda. self-hatey, im not kidding, spoilers for literally everything, the violence is only at one part though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:16:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1291000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitaslaughing/pseuds/vanitaslaughing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wings had always quite fascinated him. Wings - and the eventual downfall they brought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wings

**Author's Note:**

> here’s an explanation on the eye thing mentioned in there; it's headcanon based and i ditched canon for this, people have eye colours responding to the crystal of the region they were born in; caldisla gets grey bc no crystal + they dont belong to eternia, florem, ancheim or eisenberg (which makes edea's eyes brown, agnes's green, tiz's grey and ringabel's blue)

Whenever he thought back to the legends of angels in the days of Wa, a smile came to his face. Glorious beings with serene faces and wings big and soft enough to outshine the clouds hunching together in the Luxendarian sky. Free to fly wherever they wanted to go, no boundaries, no secret place where they went into hiding after the rise of modern Luxendarc. A song of theirs could stop wars and ressurect the dead, grant another human wings so they could join their ranks. Flying - it had always fascinated him.

But, as a outcast, there was little to no hope of ever seeing an airship. Somewhere in the slums of Florem there was no hope of growing wings and being carried away by the winds into the Flor-Cheim Inner Sea, and then being swept away into the Sea of Corsairs. Seeing Grandship, the state his father had been from, maybe even seeing the snow of Eternia himself... It was all but an unreachable dream for Alternis. Or so he thought.

Darkness draws the light, and so after his own mother, still remembering the child she had left, asked this man from Eternia to kill the brat and take back the Asterisk he had gotten from his dying father, Alternis had found light. A family that was worth thinking about. Though never once the templar called him his son, Alternis knew that he was more than a mere apprentice to the man. Especially after the templar's daughter made the calm and silent boy open up a little.

He was older than her by five years; he was from the streets of a Crystalist state; she was the beloved daughter of the main advocate of Anticrystalism. They were... quite an odd pair at first. The tall, hunched over kid wearing black and constantly shielding his face from other people; the loud and lively young girl who pranced around without a care in the world. Eventually people got used to them.

It was essentially a fairytale of a childhood, the proud girl on her way of becoming a warrior and the silent but stern boy rising through the ranks of the duchy with almost ridiculous ease. They relied on each other, told each other their honest opnions and feelings and what not. When Edea started crying, often it was only Alternis who managed to soothe her; whenever he was in one of his moods by overusing the darkness he relied on, she was the first to console and try helping him. A team, a clockwork mechanism - one ticked, the other tocked.

Even after he rose to the highest rank one could get, even as a member of the Council of Six at the almost tender age of 17, they stuck together. It got harder with Edea's training being more intense, but he'd always be there to offer her aid. Reached his had out to her as the templar had once done - more than anything, he wanted to see this girl who would never know the slums of Florem, spread her wings and fly.

Yes, he'd never quite given up on that thought. People, who were granted wings after becoming heroes, or made an important impact on the world. Silly as it might sound - there wasn't much known about the Land of Wa, other than old relics and little more than broken lore. But this one story a historian from Caldisla had told someone as they passed through the place he had sought shelter from the rain, it really stuck with him. And Edea, he was sure, would be so overly excited over this turn of events that she'd just bust out her loud and beautiful laugh as she fell from the skies just to swoop back up in a swift motion.

The closest thing to that were airships nowadays, Eternia being the perfect place for that. As a member of the Council, one was entitled to a personal airship. And Alternis enjoyed nothing more than just hanging around that airship once he had it, often doing nothing more than staring at the mountain reaches of Eternia and thinking about the world beyond. He'd only been to Eisenberg once, the whole region striking him as rather odd. And he really, really disliked being around the Black Blades for some reason. Something about Qada in particular made him uncomfortable. He was 20, but that still didn't change his absolute hatred for adults who abused their power. His mother had done that by using her power over him to leave him in the slums.

Time almost flew by like this, and then, one day, it was suddenly over. The peacefulness in the City of Eternia was interrupted by an earthquake in the late afternoon. After it was over the Council of Six was called, and he hurried to the Central Command by a specifically sent airship. They were, naturally, only four up here - the other two he had never seen in his life, only heard tales of them. Victor and Victoria always so disgustingly smug, and the Grand Marshal... he looked troubled. When he started talking his tone was grim, and the order that the Vestals be captured was given. What struck Alternis, though, was the fact that the Sky Knights were to be accompanied by Edea from now on. Edea - alone in Caldisla?

 -

He hated this. Hated not knowing what was going to happen. Florem-blue eyes stuck out in the crowd, and though his tale as Ancheim resident was believable due to the law that men were not allowed to live in Florem until a certain age - he felt like some fantastically strange flower blooming in the middle of a patch of herbs. Silverish-blonde hair and these ridiculous clothes that the Sky Knights had made him wear so he wouldn't be recognised as Dark Knight straight away...

He felt unprotected.

What was more, this boy he'd pulled from the river earlier the day before struck him as even more odd than his entire situation. Alternis was someone who liked being in complete control of his thoughts and what was going on, but this was quite ridiculous.

Finally, the signal to return.

To return to Eternia.

He'd only caught a glimpse of Edea once since her arrival, but not once had they spoken. It felt like something was tugging at their bond, ready to tear should it be given the chance. Had he known that this would be the last time he'd see Edea within Eternian ranks, he would have stayed. Made sure her wings wouldn't carry her so, so far away from him.

 -

But in the end, her wings carried her off in the direction of the Vestal of Wind. A Crystalist symbol and preacher, as the speech in Ancheim made it clear. Alternis almost felt bad for the king, though that man was hardly someone he liked. Whisking away through the crowd he would later run into Edea after he tried to capture the Vestal on the stolen Eschalot. Her determination was always something he'd admired, but now, for the first time in his life, he found himself annoyed by her stubborn behaviour. She, who she had a family who loved her, threw it all away for a oman she barely even knew. They were shouting at each other on the Eschalot, Alternis being once more more than glad that he wore armour and helm, though the sand in Ancheim made it barely bearable. She called him a hypocrite, he her a spoiled brat. After that they fell silent, and he once more asked her if that was her final decision. She said yes, and so Alternis left after shattering the skystone he'd watched being put in that very airship once.

Back on the Dark Knight he realised that he'd been crying doing so.

Practically begging Einheria to stop Edea and take her home, he left for Florem the first time in his life since Braev Lee pulled him out of there. He even donned civil clothes for that, the Dark Knight still docked in the former Crystalist Village somewhere to the west. His steps here wary, the whole city already disgusting him. Even moreso since this was now DeRosa's habitat, a man he really and absolutely loathed. His whole character was despicable.

Not half as despicable as this city though.

The women there had been focused on Crystalism when he'd lived there, daughters more treasured than anything. There were sons, of course, but they were only allowed to live in Florem with their mothers until the age of 14 should they decide to live with the mothers at all. Now that he was a grown man there were many girls he knew from back then fawning over these Spirit Hairpins and even men from other reaches of Luxendarc. One of them even tried chatting him up, but once she spoke of his blue eyes and his Flor heritage, he walked away. Subconsciously he'd ended up in the very place that he had spent most of his early life - this one part of the slum, not too far away from the water that surrounded the city.

For the second time that week Alternis found himself crying, this time even sinking to his knees. He wasn't just crying, he was sobbing. He hated this place. He hated everything about Florem. He hated what had brought him here, he hated his mother. Hated his father for dying and leaving him in her hands in the first place. But more than anything else... he hated himself.

He, once more, left in a hurry. Not even acknowledging that Victor and Victoria, newly dispatched to the City of Florem, had seen part of his breakdown.

 -

They weren't unlike each other. Both had no family to call their own, both looked up to someone who had saved them. But Egil, Alternis admitted, was far more pleasant company than anyone else. At least until the child started muttering something about a "Fire Vestal" in his sleep. Apparently there was a secret passage to the Temple of Fire and the Vestal of Fire told he child of this in his sleep.

Poor little orphan.

Was this how Braev had seen him when they met? A pitiful mess of a child, ragged clothes and unkempt hair, dark shadows under his eyes and scars across hs body? Granted, the latter was something Egil lacked, but Alternis almost subconsciously guided his finger across one on his arm. Someone who had no voice and choice in what was to become of them - Egil the one to open the pathway to the Temple of Fire for either a Black Blade or the Vestal of Wind... Alternis as the child dumped in the slums that was to be executed by a stranger who had been sent by his mother.

He caved the next day, after hearing Egil practically begged him to take him along into the Mythril Mines where Alternis was to be sent. Heat took its toll on both of them, and by the time the Vestal of Wind and her companions caught up Alternis was almost unwilling to fight. He just wanted this all to be a bad dream, a bad dream or a hallucination.

As the ground gave in below him and he saw his own hand reaching for Edea's way too late, he was sure - this was no dream. Whatever past they shared, Edea and he had basically cut off their ties only to realise that there was perhaps still something left - hence them reaching for each other too late. How ironic. They were always there to catch each other, and even now they tried, but Alternis almost laughed out loud when he saw that whatever bond they still had was not enough.

Just almost.

Before he could do so his vision went red as body and armour connected with the lava in the Underflow.

 -

Qada got his revenge. Victor got to gloat at the man. And all Alternis got was his heart shattered.

The templar sending him away to catch the Vestal as last plan should he die in battle... Alternis didn't want to think of this. Edea having to slay her father was the worst thing he could imagine. They were both like family to him, even Mahzer upon thinking harder, but this would... this would break the entire family of Lee. With Braev dead at his daughter's hands, Mahzer sure was bound to start hating her. Edea would end up being cast out of the family, and... and...

He curled up in terror, the light almost blinding him. The Holy Pillar had risen. Had this whole scenario that played out in his head taken place? He was... afraid. Scared.

He feared it did, and that now he wouldn't have anywhere to return to. With Braev dead there was no reason for him to even show his face before Mahzer Lee anymore. He was, though upon orders, the man who had abandoned his post to catch Edea and the Vestal and the boy here at this place of legends. Losing his family a second time, he couldn't take it. Especially not if Edea had lost hers too - he knew the terror of being lost alone by a mother after losing a father all too well, and living through this a second time would kill him. It would plain out kill him, leave nothing more than scattered feathers of his hopes and dreams as they drifted off into the Underflow to be incinerated.

Grandship appeared before him like a sign of the apocalypse, the ship being awfully bold within the light. Deciding to attack the former council chamber he went in - only to find it abandoned. Where had the Vestal, her protector, the fairy and Edea gone? On deck? But why would they go on deck with nothing and nobody to commandeer the ship?

His legs were made of lead as he started walking that path. His father had been born and raised on this ship, but he'd left it for a Flor woman he fell in love with. Only to die in Florem when he visited wife and son in a sudden bout of sickness. His mother had always said that she'd wanted a daughter over him a million times when his father wasn't around, and the three months after his father's death until his mother had left him to die on his own were hellish. How his father ever fell in love with this witch, he'd never understand.

His thoughts were interrupted by a scream - and not your angry kind of scream, that was... that was someone in agony. His blood, formerly boiling, turned to ice.

It was getting hard to breathe, and the sounds of fighting became more and more clear the more he walked on.

Alternis ripped his helmet off his head and broke into a run. He stumbled over his legs and skidded to a halt, terror completely claiming him. There was not a single word in his vocabulary that would even half explain this horrfying scene laid out before him. His mind just couldn't process what was happening, it was all playing as if someone had casted Stop on his brain. Grandship creaked and croaked underneath the battle and the light, taunts and screams not even registering as words. It was all shrieking to him, shrieking and shattering. Like glass splittering, a spell ripping through the silence.

Like wings slowly being plucked apart.

And these wings were certainly being clipped, brutally torn into pieces. Feathers scattered into the wings and the butterfly, the bird, the angel itself, being left to bleed dry. It didn't register all. His mind was spinning, slipping, breaking. This was worse than anything that already had thrown him off his usual cool behaviour and thinking. He was losing all grip on reality and the floor seemed to vanish under his feet. hen the creature left its victims dead on the deck and carried on, he unfroze. Every step he took seemed so unreal, even as his metal boots splashed through a puddle of blood, it didn't register. Even as he tripped over an arm that had formerly belonged to the Norende boy he'd pulled from the river, it just didn't click. His mind was foggy, confusion and terror choking out everything as he dropped down next to Edea. Eternian brown eyes clouded over and reflecting the light of this Holy Pillar blindly. Blonde hair more a mess than usual, drenched in blood. An angel, her wings clipped and her body lifeless, and Alternis didn't understand. Couldn't. Wouldn't. Let this be a dream, his mind howled, let this all be a bad dream, she's okay, she's just with the Eternian Sky Knights in Caldisla, and she's going to be fine, she's going to be alright. This whole everything never happened, her hand never tried reaching for him as he fell into the Underflow, he was dreaming, dreaming, this was all fake, fake, fake, it had to be. Victoria or Qada were playing a cruel trick on him, she wasn't dead, she couldn't be dead. Not the girl whose laugh and determination gave him enough strength to overcome his doubts. Not the girl who had her entire life ahead of her, not her, not her, not her.

"No... I... told you this would...!"

It was turning, it was all turning, wilder and wilder the more seconds passed. Alternis, the young man who was always called rather emotionless due to his helmet and armour and limited gesture, let out a blood-curling scream that fell upon deaf ears. Tears that wouldn't surprise anyone. The dark knight was the only living human on this ship, and whatever the fairy said in her smug tone all completely clipped through his head. He didn't register it, he couldn't register it. He was falling, falling and nothing would break the fall - or so he thought.

The fairy, the murderer, the slayer, whatever one would call it, turned to him. There was still light, so much light. She said something and turned into the creature that he'd seen slay the three who had awakened all crystals across Luxendarc, but Alternis couldn't even take up arms. He was hollow, completely hollow, everything that had ever made him 'Alternis' lying dead next to Edea.

Except he wasn't dead. Yet. Staring into the creature's face as its arms moved closer to end his pathetic existence, Alternis truly thought that perhaps people gained wings. After death. Except cowards. And he could just imagine it perfectly, Edea always flying out of his reach because he was nothing more than a coward who never once made a move to save her life. He would always be falling, be it into a Flor river, from a snowhill when he and Edea were younger, from stairs, over his own feet - into the Underflow. She'd be flying, and he'd be the falling one.

The light only got brighter and brighter, and Alternis had no idea how he even managed to open his diary. His hands were shaking. The only ink he had left was the one still on the feather. A scribbly drawing of the Evil One, and his signature. His vision was swimming in tears and blood, and both dripped on the last page. His vision went white after that.

 -

A man with no name, but injuries all over. No clue who he was, not a single thought on his mind to make sure who he was. His body ached, his heart ached even more, but whatever remained of the armour he once more - had he been a knight? - was too little to draw any clues from. Even his clothes underneath the armour were ripped and bloody. Did monsters attack him? The last thing he recalled was... nothing. There was nothing, not more than complete vast whiteness. Groaning and standing up, he staggered around.

There had to be something to remind him of his past, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing. No sound, no name, there was absolutely nothing on his mind. It was blank, a complete canvas erased before he could take a closer look at it.

Only then he noticed the book lying around. Was it his? Or someone else's? He didn't know. Couldn't know. Maybe this would refresh his memory.

 -

Two days later he arrived in Caldisla, not knowing more than before. The only thing he knew, and of that he was certain, was that this book foretold the future. Some people here seemed to know him somewhat, asking where he'd been, only to be surprised by him having lost his memories. There was no explanation, and nobody seemed to know where he was from, or what his name was. His name, he decided, would be Ringabel until he remembered his own. It just seemed more appropriate to see this all in a lighter manner than being all dark and broody and moody about having lost his memories. This odd choice of name would also make people laugh. He had no idea why, but people laughing made something within him react. Especially women.

And after reading about Edea, he just... he didn't know why, but this woman he had to meet. There was something about her story in this book that simply drew him in, made him want to know more about this apparently perfect woman.

Through the flames that day he wasn't sure how he managed to pull out. Something about fire in general seemed to make him extremely nervous, and coughing his lungs out as he managed to escape this firey hell, he looked at who had given him this rude awakening - and felt like something struck his empty memories. That was Edea - she perfectly fit these descriptions of her in the book he carried with him even now - that had to be Edea. And he thanked his lousy luck that he dozed off starwatching - had he slept for real he would have died in that fire that took the house, and a few light burns were nothing compared to finally seeing the person who had captivated him the moment he read about her. Surely she had to be an angel waiting to receive her wings and fly away. She was simply too woderful to not be.

 -

But, eventually, Ringabel realised that wings were not earned so easily. Time after time he'd stare ahead blankly with little to no idea what was happening. Tiz, Agnès and Edea seemed to naturally fit into this whole quest and Airy seemed to agree - but he, he stuck out. No memories. Flor blue eyes. Tiz's Caldis grey, Agnès' Ancheim green, Edea's Eternian brown - they all had a story behind why they had these eye colours, but nobody in Florem had any idea who Ringabel was. Nobody on Grandship - where Flor-born men generally went to live - knew him either. Not a single person in the Eisen region, the Caldis region and the Flor region seemed to know this man. It was as if he'd suddenly dropped from the sky, earning a joking 'well, maybe he was kicked out by the angels for being a total pervert!' from Edea once. Everyone laughed, but Ringabel was almost too afraid to admit it hurt and scared him. He was out of the place, no family, no home.

And even if he had, what exactly would happen once they awakened the crystals? Surely there had to be some kind of reward, and if he'd truly dropped out of the sky... would he get his wings back?

It wasn't until the Holy Pillar he realised that he, at the very least, would've never gotten any kind go wings were this a story taking place in the ancient Wa. Edea would, Agnès would and Tiz would. But there were no wings for broken angels. His memory was broken, unfixable possibly.

And Alternis Dim, the man who shared his face, would not sprout wings and return to Edea who had tried to reach for him as he fell off-board. Flor blue eyes, wide in terror, with blood running down his familiar face. A voice that grated in Ringabel's ears like none else - because it was his own. Silverish blonde hair, the same build and even the same strange but faint scar across the left side of their face as if someone had beaten them into something sharp with their head first. Alternis fell, fell and disappeared in the light, nothing but the raging sea at the other end of the Holy Pillar awaiting him. Death by the sea, while often romantic in novels, had to be terrible when you were already half beaten to death.

His mind was doing backflips as light engulfed them completely, the strange sound being more than familiar.

As if someone was plucking the wings of someone he'd barely even met.

 -

The more crystals awakened, the more certain he became that if he'd ever had these wings he was so oddly fascinated with, they'd been shattered a long time ago - or always been made of glass. Cracked and trashed with his memory and now nothing more than painful shards in his side. Starting with the second encounter with Alternis Dim, the man howling out insults towards Ringabel that he'd never thought he'd hear, and once more seeing Edea trying to reach for the childhood friend as he reeled off the ship during a tremor, Ringabel realised something. He'd told them as soon as they awakened the first Wind Crystal that he'd seen someone reach for him in bright light, but by now he was remembering that this wasn't the Holy Pillar or anything he'd imagined. It had been the Underflow, the bright red and yellow lava growling and bubbling underneath him. His hand in that short vision wasn't inside a leather glove as it was now - it was armour. Armour as dark as pitch, looking exactly like Alternis Dim's. The strange sound he heard through all the rushing noise was Edea's voice. Edea's familiar voice calling out for...

Just as she was now, almost falling off Grandship and after her childhood friend.

His head hurt, hurt so much he thought it was going to explode. His vision blotted out only fade into something that looked equally broken as he felt right now, flashes of a past he had forgotten. The pain was unbearable, so unbearable. And the last and only clear flash of that was... Airy's... wings...? What just was up with wings being a common pattern in this... whole...

 -

Alternis Dim.

Ringabel.

Alternis Dim.

Ringabel.

There wasn't much difference between them in the next go-round. Both were broken men at this point, one internally and one externally weeping over something they couldn't quite grasp. Edea's room seemed colder than usual at this point, with Alternis' voice being completely broken - and that could be heard even through the helmet, loud and clear. He'd given up, given up completely, and left his post for this stranger with his own face. Alternis Dim of that world... was he, in a way, less a coward than Ringabel? He wondered that for a moment. Though not yet remembering why, Ringabel remembered something about having completely failed everyone who had meant something to him, shattering his memories like glass underneath a brutal and bloody hammer. This Alternis did not have hands in the fate of his Edea, yet he was more openly wailing than anyone else he'd ever seen. Whatever his solution for this, it would certainly make Alternis at the very least find peace with himself, even if that was a terrible thing to think of. And Ringabel remained completely torn between what to think of this and what to decide. Edea, too, seemed absolutely unable to answer after that world's Mahzer and Braev offered them a dinner as a family. It was something that Ringabel, in his own world, would never get to enjoy again, and even in her own world it seemed highly unlikely that it would happen again. So they both left Eternia, torn and wondering.

They all were torn and wondering at a certain part of their travels in that world, the last crystal remaining unawakened. But, and maybe because of that, they realised something after they looked at each other. All four of them remembered the incident during their travels through the Underflow together with Egil, the thrill and relief when they jumped in for help and all ended up okay. In a way, though all their wings were somehow torn or shattered, they ended up grabbing each other and pulling each other away from danger and towards the sky in that very moment. They were a team, though an odd one, and nobody would quite fit into it. But in the end that was what made them such a good team. They had their differences, disagreements, but this was truly what made them the best team. They only needed each other, not their siblings and families and friends from another world. They had to accept that in their home all these people were different or long gone.

It was... heartwarming. And perhaps it gave Ringabel back a piece of his own broken wings.

 -

"Besides, I don't have anywhere to go back to." He wasn't even sure why this escaped his lips. It was quite clear by now that he was a coward and a failure, but perhaps he'd wanted to say that to Edea all this time. That he couldn't go back to a world where she was dead because of him. Which was why her almost enthusiastic reply stunned him for a moment.

"Come live in Eternia! Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you." Her smile was warm and welcoming, and even the little laugh as she added the second sentence seemed honest. Maybe... maybe he was less of a despicable coward in her book than he was in his own. Ringabel returned the smile almost too embarrassed to do it for longer than a split second.

"Hmm... It might be nice to have somewhere I could call home."

 -

Perhaps what the ancient Land of Wa meant with 'growing wings' was accomplishing something great. Ringabel, when he was still called Alternis, had thought that you'd have to accomplish something that other people noticed, something that would change the world. He'd hoped to one day have such an impact, but right now he was realising that his younger self had been somewhat wrong. But accomplishing something great wasn't necessarily linked to other people noticing. Managing to bring up a child in poor environment when one had almost given up hope could be seen as such a requirement for a set of wings. A selfless sacrifice from a selfish person; the blind making at least one other person see; the coddled rising to be a warrior; the confused ending up guiding; the headstrong becoming a reliant ally... the cowards overcoming their cowardice. As the four of them reached for each others hands as Ouroboros met his end in the Infernal Realm, Ringabel could have sworn they were going to recieve wings to fly out of the Infernal Realm and the Dark Aurora and return home to the world of their birth - or in his case, world of his choice. He'd promised Edea that he'd stay with her, taking her world's Alternis' place. The man who had fallen to his death because of them.

But there was no such thing, and the blast knocked them unconscious. His last thought was that he was going to die, but at the very least as someone as honourably selfless as Lord DeRosso rather than the cowardly fool Alternis Dim had been in the world of his birth.

When they opened their eyes he was almost in disbelief they were alive. Ringabel, who had possibly thought the least they were going to survive, was now the one to dispel the other's doubts by telling them how he ached all over - and in his life he'd often thought he was dead or dreaming, and pain had brought him back into reality.

He was the one to steer Grandship back into their home, to drop them off where they wanted to be. Maybe, he joked when he was the last person on Grandship with Edea, maybe they'd all actually grow wings, even Datz, Zatz and the proprietress. She simply laughed and punched his shoulder jokingly, calling him a dreamer with his head stuck too far up in the clouds. Then she fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.

Asking her if the was okay, she shook her head and he tensed as she brought up "her" Alternis. The man, according to what Edea now said, had always compared things to the sun and the moon. Why, she didn't know, but if she realised one thing over time, then it was that every Alternis had something else he used in speech a lot. "Her" Alternis had sun and moon, the second one she met in her life had a rather chilling speech related to winter and the cold; the third used light and darkness; and so on.

"But you, Ringabel, you seem to be absolutely fascinated by wings. And that sets you apart from the comparisons that the others said. And it's... it's almost disgustingly sappy and romantic of you to have chosen 'wings' as your main thing. Considering you didn't know the whole 'angel' thing revolving around Lord DeRosso and Sage Yulyana until you lost my memory and became Ringabel."

He laughed, once more relaxed. There was nothing to reply to Edea as they set course to Eternia, and he only for a moment wondered. Would his Edea have noticed that too? What would she have done if she'd been to other worlds? When he thought about going 'home' to his world, Ringabel was left with the discovery that it had been used by Ouroboros as one of the few worlds to be linked and destroyed by the creature. The world where he'd been born, where he'd been raised and had his chains of memories shattered, it didn't exist anymore. Perhaps it was recovering and rebuilding, only to realise that Alternis was missing.

Maybe Alternis would be replaced too.

Maybe the recovering worlds would forever be stuck in the state before Airy crossed into the next. A chilling thought, and Ringabel turned his eyes skywards. He didn't speak it out aloud, but he thought of his hope that, should his world be actually stuck in such a state, his replacement would be less of a bone-chilling coward and actually leap in to help his world's Tiz, Agnès and Edea. Not another Alternis should suffer through this if he lived long enough to see all this happening.

Turning his gaze around he saw Edea almost excitedly bopping around, whispering something about her mother.

And, as a former kid left in the slums to fend for his own, Ringabel couldn't help to feel a tiny bit jealous of her. She was, after all, the Grand Marshal's daughter. A child much beloved by her parents, the proof that unbroken families existed, no matter how much they drifted apart after an argument or fight over a different opinion. It made him smile, though he was certainly not fit to take this world's Alternis' place. Not in a million years he'd be someone as brave as that man, to stand up against the very woman he loved and go against his lord's orders so much.

 -

He was more than plain surprised to he handed a black set of armour. Braev Lee didn't seem to particularly mind anything, saying that even though Ringabel was not the Alternis he raised, it was better than being left with the third important person in his life dead and his body nowhere to be found. And, after all, it had been Edea's wish for Ringabel to remain here in Eternia with her. She'd said she'd do anything for him to stay here with her.

Flor blue eyes watering again - Alternis had once thought that he would never be able to cry again, not out of sadness. But this wasn't sadness that was making him cry, not like the time in Florem back in his homeworld, not on Grandship as he broke down because of the senseless slaughter, not like the times he apparently did it in his sleep. This was the first time in his life that Alternis, Ringabel, cried out of happiness. Edea, beloved Edea, actually wanted him around despite being both the murderer of her childhood friend and a complete and utter coward.

Even Braev seemed pleased to see Ringabel accepting this set of armour as a blubbering mess of conflicting and revolting feelings he'd never thought to feel at the same time.

He had a place again.

And with Edea's help, Ringabel - no, Alternis - was quite certain that these broken wings from another world would at least heal enough to not be falling. He'd never catch up to Edea, but at least he would be able to follow her. She'd pull him along anyway.

The only family he ever had.


End file.
